Paper for Cambridge 2007 proceedings submit.pdf - Roger Blench

Numbers of non-Malay/Barito etymologies remain small and hardly support the notion of ‘waves’ as
opposed to occasional interactions. However, the lexicology and etymological analysis of Malagasy
dialects is only beginning and it may well be that further examples will be brought to light.
8. The impact of the Malay on Sabaki coastal culture
The Swahili peoples are presently identified by their maritime culture and this is usually assumed to
derive from Omani sources (Horton & Middleton 2000; Whitehouse 2001). The Swahili, especially
Zanzibaris, like to trace their ancestry to Oman, which functions as prestige origin for cultural traits. But
indirect evidence points to contact with Java as a major stimulus to nautical evolution along the East
African coast. Walsh & Blench (forthcoming) identify Malay nautical and other cultural terms borrowed
into Swahili. But equally striking is the temporal coincidence. We know from the testimony of Al-Idrisi
quoted earlier the Zenj had no ocean-going ships as late as the early 12 th century, but that they were in
intensive contact with Sumatra. It therefore seems credible that the initial transformation of the Swahili
from land-based cultivators to seafarers can be attributed to the Malay contact. Curiously, enough a
parallel evolution occurred in China; as Manguin (1980:274) points out, China only began to build an
oceangoing navy after contact with large SE Asian vessels in the 8 th and 9 th centuries.
Subsequently, nautical technology on the coast seems to have undergone a revolution, due to the
influence of Arab and Indian commerce and the rapid adoption of new craft. Jewell (1976) describes the
many ship types on the waterfront at Mombasa, which in the 1960s were still undertaking a circular
voyage between the Gulf of Aden, the west coast of India, Nossi Bé in NW Madagascar and the Comores
and on to East Africa. When Vasco da Gama arrived, all these ships were constructed entirely without
nails, an ancient practice characteristic of the entire Indian Ocean region. At any rate, from this period
onwards, the expansion of commerce stimulated the development of shipyards all along the coast and the
virtual replacement of whatever older shipping forms were in use, with the exception of the mtepe or
‘sewn boat’ (Hornell 1941). As a consequence, it has become difficult to reconstruct older Austronesian
maritime influence, even as the disappearance of dhows in the years since Jewell’s book was published
have made much more recent trade patterns less researchable.
9. Islands in the stream
Recent research points ever more strongly to early and persistent Austronesian contacts across the Indian
Ocean, both via outriggers as part of the spice trade and with the rigid ships of the Malay sea-borne
empire. The later rise of Arab shipping has largely obscured this narrative in the broader history of the
region and had a negative impact on archaeological survey. One of the more curious aspects of the
archaeology of trans-Indian Ocean voyaging is that there is so little evidence for Austronesian (or other)
incursions on the intermediate islands. The ability of Austronesian navigators to find very small islands
in large expanses of open ocean is well documented, yet it seems that almost all the Indian Ocean islands
were uninhabited during the first period of European contact. Anderson (2002) in a survey of Pacific
islands in remote Oceania found no less than thirty which were apparently reached by Austronesian
.
navigators but were devoid of inhabitants during the period of European exploration 11 Explanations are
various; typhoons, disease, lack of sustainable food and water supplies are all probable causes. The
situation may be replicated in the Indian Ocean; Mauritius or the Seychelles may have been reached, but
then abandoned again for a variety of reasons. Indeed, the computer simulation of trans-Indian Ocean
voyages by Fitzpatrick & Callaghan (2008) suggests that it is very unlikely the voyagers did not touch
the intervening islands. One reason for their abandonment may have been the lack of easily exploitable
food resources. It is notable that European sailors tended to rapidly consume any readily caught resource
(e.g. the dodo) and bring in and release often destructive species such as the goat in order to ensure future
food supplies. In the case of the Maldives, no Austronesian language is spoken there today. However, as
both Hornell (1920: 230) and Manguin (1985:12) argue, constructional techniques in boatbuilding point
unambiguously to early Austronesian contact.
It seems increasingly likely that the lack of evidence for Austronesian landings is an artefact of the
patchy archaeology. Creating a checklist of possible landing sites or failed colonisation attempts may
help to recover this intriguing period. Table 3 is intended to highlight the extremely uneven record of
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